Redwood, Crusoe Deploy World’s Largest Reused Battery Grid

Redwood Materials, founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, has launched Redwood Energy to repurpose used electric vehicle batteries, which typically retain 50-80% of their capacity, into large-scale stationary energy storage systems. Partnering with Crusoe Energy, Redwood has deployed a 12MW/63MWh microgrid at its Nevada campus, now powering Crusoe’s AI data centers. This project represents the world’s largest deployment of reused batteries for energy-intensive AI data center applications, addressing the rapidly growing power needs driven by generative AI expansion. Redwood processes over 20 GWh of used batteries annually—about 250,000 EVs and 90% of North America's lithium-ion battery recycling—and expects to repurpose batteries from more than 100,000 EVs each year. By diverting batteries from recycling streams and delaying their processing until end-of-life, Redwood’s model offers a sustainable and cost-effective approach to meeting data center energy demands. The initiative is seen as crucial for supporting grid reliability and renewable energy integration as the data center sector grows.